Curt Fraser overcomes adversity to win 100th game as Griffins coach

Mark Newman | Grand Rapids GriffinsCurt Fraser won his 100th game with the Griffins when they beat Chicago 7-5 on Wednesday night.

GRAND RAPIDS -- Despite a variety of continued setbacks this season -- injuries, recalls, slumps -- Curt Fraser said he still enjoys coaching the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Good thing, since he's starting to collect franchise milestones.

With the Griffins' 7-5 win at Chicago on Wednesday night, Fraser collected his 100th win with the team. On Jan. 30, he coached his 209th Griffins game, which broke a tie with Danton Cole for the most team history.

Fraser downplayed the individual marks, choosing the direct the focus back to the team.

"If you hit a few accomplishments like that it means the team is playing well, and that's the most-important thing," the third-year coach said.

Fraser has been forced to adapt on the fly this season. For example, the Griffins missed six regulars against Chicago: goaltender Joey MacDonald, who remains with the parent club Detroit Red Wings, injured forward Jan Mursak and injured defensemen Greg Amadio, Sergei Kolosov, Derek Meech and Brendan Smith.

Fraser said he's used to losing players to Detroit. But tacking injuries on top of that has made things difficult.

"When the big team up top starts picking up a lot of injuries then you know you're going to get affected by that," Fraser said. "But the thing that has been real different for us this year is we've gotten beaten up and injured. It's a tough combination to work through."

Fraser's most-recent win was vital to the Griffins' playoff chances. At 23-23-1-5, they are six points behind Lake Erie -- which Grand Rapids faces Saturday night -- for the North Division's final postseason slot.

"Obviously, we wish we were at the top of our division and the top of our conference, but every team has got to deal with problems and we've had to deal with a lot," Fraser said. "But I think our guys have worked through it fairly well and now we'll see how we do in these last 28 games.

"Because we're going to have to be very, very good if we expect to creep into that last playoff spot. That's our goal."